Watch the Throne: Ranking Every King of the Ring Winner

#11 Billy Gunn, 1999 King of the Ring

Being a tag team specialist in the King of the Ring doesn't necessarily spell doom for a performer, but it didn't spell success for Billy Gunn

Billy Gunn had made a name for himself throughout the 1990s as a tag team competitor, winning tag team gold both with his kayfabe brother Bart as The Smoking Gunns and with Road Dogg as The New Age Outlaws; during that same time, his singles run as Rockabilly was much more forgettable, and the impetus for a "we have nothing else for you" pairing with Dogg that led to an iconic tag team.

As 1999 approached the late spring and early Summer, Dogg and Gunn were testing the waters of singles competition, having both competed for singles titles at WrestleMania while D-X imploded around them; WWE saw Gunn as having the bigger star potential (due to his size, look, and charisma), and invested in him with a significant singles push starting at King of the Ring.

On a show where it was plain that Vince Russo was running out of the creative magic which had made WWF such a raging success the prior summer (this is, after all, the show whose main event saw Steve Austin lose a ladder match when the briefcase he was reaching for mysteriously moved itself out of Austin's way), Gunn overcame 1998's King Ken Shamrock, then former allies Kane and X-Pac to claim a crown many felt he was undeserving of.

His Career After King of the Ring

Here is where Gunn's royal push, and all of his momentum, stops abruptly.

Billy Gunn went on to have a lot more success after winning the crown and scepter, but almost none of it comes from this tournament victory; his only high-profile singles feud came with The Rock, to whom Gunn lost a SummerSlam contest whose name Sportskeeda's PG policies won't let us publish. That match, and Gunn's inability to keep up with Rock on the microphone, making him seem inept and foolish, effectively killed The One's biggest singles push, and he was back with Dogg within weeks.

Gunn famously spent the 2001 King of the Ring broadcast hosting from WWF New York, with a promo leaving many fans wondering where it fell on the spectrum between work and shoot about his being a former King but not being on the actual show.

Aside from a two-week Intercontinental Championship reign, nearly all of Gunn's subsequent WWE success came with tag teams, winning tag titles both with Road Dogg and with Chuck Palumbo; it's not a disappointing career, but it's not the massive change in singles success a King of the Ring win was originally intended to be.